1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an integral multiplex adapter card, and especially to an adapter card meeting the size specification of a CF card, the adapter card can allow insertion therein of a small silicon disk such as an MS card, an SD card or an MMC card etc., and has a CF connecting end and a USB connecting end, so that data in the silicon disk of such a size specification can be converted to meet the specification of a CF card or a USB interface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the recent years, silicon disks are widely used in the field of information appliance (IA) by virtue of the excellent characteristics that they are light, small, thin and short, having high storage capacity, vibration durability as well as repeated memorizing for multiple times, they can be used for multiple digitalized products popularized in the markets such as a personal digital assistance (PDA), a digital camera (DSC), a digital walkman (MP3 Player) etc., the products almost all use silicon disks as storage media.
Nowadays, silicon disks in the whole globe do not have a unified specification, and related products include at least: PCMMCIA cards, CF cards (CompactFlash Cards), SM cards (Smart Media Cards), MMC cards (MultiMedia Cards), MS cards (Memory Stick Cards) and SD cards (Secure Digital Cards) etc., they are multitudinous and respectively prevailing in the markets.
However, lacking of a unified specification of the silicon disks is not good in fact to the consumer masses; this is because the silicon disks can not have effective communication among the portable digital products, computer systems and peripheral equipment of computers, this results inconvenience of consumers in using them, the consumers thereby will be quite limited in choosing digital products in the future. It is, therefore, an extremely important direction of thought to increase convenience of consumers in using silicon disks of different specifications.
In order to get commonness among the silicon disks of different specifications, designing shall aim at those silicon disks with larger applicability, so that other silicon disks can be applied to the specification of this kind of silicon disk, and such measures can be positively significant. In the silicon disks mentioned above, a CF card is of a memory card specification which is light, small, thin and short, it has the characteristics of good data preservation ability, high reliability and electric power saving ability etc., thereby it is quite often used on consumptive electronic products, and is developed to make a memory card, a data card, a cable or wireless network card, a bluetooth card (wireless communication card) etc.; thereby it has wide practicability, and relatively more digital products adopt CF cards as their specification in application.
The inventor of the present invention decided to adopt the specification of CF cards as a basis of designing, the reason is, in addition to the larger function and practicability of the CF cards, there is an important factor of consideration that the CF cards have moderate size specification. For example, the size specification of the CF cards is as below, 43 mm widexc3x973.3/5 (Type I/II) mm thick (in the size specification of the CF cards, length is standard 36 m, but it can be extended for other usage, e.g., being used as a connector for pins of telephone wires). While the size specifications of the MS cards, SD cards and MMC cards are individually 21.5 mm widexc3x972.8 mm thick, 24 mm widexc3x971.4 mm thick and 24 mm widexc3x972.1 mm thick, that is, the space formed from the width and thickness of the size specification of the CF cards is adequate to accommodate an MS card, an SD card or an MMC card. In view of this, the inventor of the present invention decided to adopt the specification of CF cards as a basis of designing.
Particularly, the integral multiplex adapter card of the present invention is provided in a housing meeting the size specification of a CF card with an electric circuit board assembly, the housing has thereon a receiving cassette. The electric circuit board assembly is provided on a single base plate thereof with a CF connecting end, a USB connecting end, a common chip set and a set of contact pins. In this way, a small silicon disk including an MS card, SD card or MMC card etc. can be inserted into the receiving cassette of the housing to output data on the silicon disks through the CF connecting end or the USB connecting end.
The primary object of the present invention is to adopt the above stated designing to make the small silicon disks including MS cards, SD cards or MMC cards etc. available for various digital products each with a CF card interface or a USB interface, so that these silicon disks of different specifications can have commonness in use. Digital products only with a CF card interface or a USB interface each can thereby take a silicon disk with the specification of the MS cards, SD cards or MMC cards etc. as its storing medium. This can increase convenience of use.
The electric circuit board assembly among the elements of the present invention is also a large break through of the present invention, as to this:
Among the related prior arts, a xe2x80x9ccard reading machinexe2x80x9d has a function to read silicon disks, and to transmit data by connecting of a USB interface (when a USB interface is provided) with the main frame of a computer. The conventional xe2x80x9ccard reading machinexe2x80x9d is in the form of a cassette having a base plate with a connecter, and an electric circuit board (PCB) with a chip set and a transmission interface. The base plate has to be electrically connected with the electric circuit board; when a silicon disk is inserted into the card reading machine, it connects the pins of the connecter which transmit signals through the base plate and then to the electric circuit board, and the signals are output by means of the chip set and the transmission interface.
The conventional xe2x80x9ccard reading machinexe2x80x9d is externally connected with the main frame of the computer; its volume can be varied in pursuance of designing of the appearance thereof at will of the manufacturer. Therefore, the interior space thereof is certainly adequate to receive the base plate and the electric circuit board. The contour of the present invention must have the thickness thereof met the size specification of the CF cards (3.3/15 mm); to provide a base plate and a electric circuit board with in such a thickness, there must be no redundant space to further receive a small silicon disk such as an MS card, an SD card or an MMC card etc. Therefore, in designing the present invention, the base plate and the electric circuit board shall be combined with each other, i.e., an electric circuit board assembly shall be adopted instead of the conventional base plate and electric circuit board.
In view of this, the present invention takes the advantage of the space style of a card (referring to the preceding narration, of which the width is 43 mm which is far larger than any of the widths of an MS card, an SD card and an MMC card, namely 21.5 mm, 24 mm and 24 mm respectively) in designing an electric circuit board assembly. In which, a set of contact pins are provided in the range of the width 24 mm of a single base plate, the remaining width of the base plate (about 43xe2x88x9224=19 mm) is used to amount a common chip set; a CF connecting end and a USB connecting end are respectively provided on the front and the rear ends of the base plate. In this way, the present invention gets the electric circuit board assembly by providing the common chip set and the set of contact pins on the base plate, and largely reduces space and thickness, the MS card, SD card or MMC card can be inserted therein within the limited space.
Additionally, it is worth mentioning that providing of a USB interface (common serial port bus) is originally for convenience of connection and communication of various digital products with a computer; and just mount a USB interface respectively on the peripheral equipment and the main frame system of the computer, the object of data transmission via a USB signal transmission line can be achieved.
Thereby, providing of the USB connecting end of the present invention has the purpose, in addition to make the silicon disks including MS cards, SD cards or MMC cards etc. available for various digital products each with a CF card interface, to directly make interconnection between the silicon disks and the main frame of the computer. And this is another object of the present invention to take the silicon disks as storing media.
And more, in practicing the present invention, the receiving cassette can be provided at the lateral side of its insertion groove with a plurality of positioning spring leaves; when an MS card, SD card or MMC card is inserted, it can be positioned by the positioning spring leaves; and after positioning, the front edge of the MS card, SD card or MMC card is exactly flush with the front edge of the housing to avoid collision and to increase stability.